In satellite systems that are utilized to broadcast media programs or content, a set-top box (STB) coupled to a terrestrial satellite dish is utilized to receive and process signals for display or playback on a television screen, for example. These satellite set-top boxes (STBs) employ a multi-chip solution to provide functions such as demodulation, encoding, decoding, display, and other related functions. For example, two BCM4500 chips manufactured by Broadcom Corporation of Irvine Calif. are utilized for demodulation and one BCM7319 chip also manufactured by Broadcom Corporation of Irvine Calif. is utilized to handle all display and other set-top-box functions. This multi-chip solution utilizes a significant amount of printed circuit board space, consumes a considerable amount of power, and is very costly to implement. With regard to the two chips that are utilized for demodulation, a first chip demodulates a first incoming data stream and the second chip demodulates a second incoming data stream.
FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram 100 of an exemplary conventional set-top box 102. Referring to FIG. 1, the set-top box 102 may comprise a storage block 104, a single receiver or demodulator block 106, a memory block 108, a conditional access (CA) system 110, an external interface block 112, an audio processor block 114, a video display engine block 116, and MPEG decoder block 118, a processor block 120, an application block 122 and an operating system block 124. The operating system block may be an embedded operating system such as pSOS, VxWorks, embedded Linux or Nucleus. The single receiver or demodulator block 106, memory block 108, external interface block 112, audio processor block 114, video display engine block 116 and MPEG encoder/decoder block 118 may each comprise a plurality of chips or chip sets. The conditional access system 110 may also include a plurality of chips. Accordingly, each of these chips or chip sets consume valuable printed circuit board (PCB) real estate resulting in increased cost. The plurality of chips also results in increased power consumption.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.